I’ve never really formed an opinion on Bijou Phillips beyond “nepotism” and “she seemed like a major party girl back in the day.” I actually forgot that she’s married to Danny Masterson – they got married in 2011 after being together for eight years. They have a daughter, born in 2014. Wow, all of that is a gigantic YIKES, isn’t it? Especially given what we know about Masterson. Anyway, don’t feel too sorry for Bijou Phillips, because as it turns out, she’s probably a gigantic a–hole. Bijou starred in the film Bully with Michael Pitt, Nick Stahl and Brad Renfro. The actor Daniel Franzese was also in the film. You might recognize him from Mean Girls. Well, Franzese wrote a lengthy Facebook post about Bijou’s behavior on and off the set of the film, and how she was a homophobic bigot, an abuser, a bully and more. You can read his full story on Facebook here, and the full THR story here.
Daniel Franzese, an actor whose credits include Mean Girls and HBO’s Looking, has accused actress-singer Bijou Phillips of body-shaming him, mocking his sexuality and physically assaulting him on the set of their movie Bully.
“She body shamed me and ridiculed me about my sexuality and physically assaulted me… I was scared and closeted and feared for my job. It started with a lot of eye rolling whenever we spoke but escalated when we did a cast shoot for the poster. As we were shooting she kept loudly saying ‘Are you gay?!’ and laughing while the producers and photographer did nothing to stop her.” Franzese wrote that some of his co-stars, including Michael Pitt and the late Brad Renfro, defended him and “kept telling her to shut up,” but he alleged that she didn’t stop.
“[S]he continued to say ‘Are You Gay?!’ Like 10 times making sure to be loud enough for everyone to hear I reluctantly told her i was bi,” he wrote. “Which at the time was how I was choosing to identify as ‘Q’ wasn’t known to be an option yet and to be honest I don’t know that I had many gay experiences at the time my life. I was an extremely late bloomer. She cackled and said ‘HA! He’s bi!’ And then when I showed up to work the next day in front of the crew she was screaming ‘Oh look! The Bi guy is here!'”
Calling the movie shoot “one of the most stressful experiences of my life on or off a set,” Franzese went on to add that he was worried about losing his job, which marked his first film role, given that the character he was playing was straight. Franzese added that he had a scene that required him to take his shirt off, “an extremely vulnerable moment for me,” he said, calling himself “the chubby kid who wore his shirt in the pool.” He claimed that when he took his shirt off, Phillips broke character, pointed at him and “at the top of her lungs yelled ‘Ewwww gross!!!'” (He also was complimentary toward Renfro, whom he said comforted him afterward and tried to boost his confidence and later yelled “Someone give me a real actress!” as Phillips allegedly continued her taunting.)
Franzese claimed that Bully co-star Nick Stahl, whom Phillips was dating at the time, convinced her to apologize after a long talk. He wrote that she did ultimately apologize, but he felt like it wasn’t sincere.
“Later she pulled me aside and said ‘I’m sorry if I offended you. You actually remind me of someone.’ She said Carnie Wilson who is in her sisters band Wilson Phillips at the time was well know for her weight issues in the media. It was meant to be a insult,” Franzese wrote. “She then grabbed my nipple and twisted it hard through my shirt and laughed and walked away. I stopped talking to her for the rest of filming.”
He said during a later scene, while she was sitting behind him, she “kept rubbing her dirty feet on my neck. I kept swiveling the chair to move away from her and she kicked me as hard as she could in the back of the head. To this day I’m not even sure if she gave me a concussion because I was light headed and dizzy for a while.”
I believe you, Daniel Franzese. I believe that Bijou Phillips was and perhaps IS a bully, a brat, a homophobe, and a total jackass. It’s interesting to me that Daniel’s story includes asides about how the male actors were defending him – it gives me a little bit of hope. The late, great Brad Renfro sounds like he was decent to Daniel, and it sounds like Nick Stahl and Michael Pitt tried to help him too. Bijou sounds an entitled, stupid, ignorant, violent brat.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’ve heard nothing but horrible things about her and her husband. They are both part of CO$ so nothing really surprises me about them.
Same here.
I’m sure she’ll regret that s–t when someone teases or talks about her child. Or maybe she won’t because she sound like an ass.
Same here. Just look at who she’s married to. Her behavior from the rumors has only gotten worse since.
Just what I was going to write. I don’t think I’ve ever ONCE heard a positive story about either one of them.
she’s completely a product of nepotism and a complete and utter CU Next Tuesday.
well that explains a lot….nasty people
She and her husband are nasty pieces of work.
Yep
This story gives me chills and makes me nauseous at the same time. She has become every pretty white girl who’s ever gotten away with violent bullying under of a veneer of “beautiful”. More power to the #meToo extending to anyone a victim of an entitled abuser.
Holy hell, what an inhumane monster. Are there not basic standards of professionalism on movie sets or what? My heart breaks for Franzese.
That movie was directed by Larry Clark. I highly doubt “professional” was how that entire thing could be described. I think I remember Brad Renfro in particular being critical of all the sex and – in his opinion – gratuitous nudity that seemed to serve no purpose. And Bijou P. being a complete jackass in general.
These past few weeks I’ve been thinking about all these boys who became “the next hot thing” in the 90s. Brad Renfro, Jonathan Brandis, Edward Furlong etc. …. SO many of them had massive problems (drugs and otherwise) after becoming famous as young kids. I suspect certain circles in Hollywood might have had a hand in causing some of their problems.
I don’t think any Larry Clark movie set is EVER a healthy experience!
There was a great article about those boys awhile back.
“Take the teenybopper magazine that seems so culturally normal when filled with photos of high school guys in flannel shirts posing on trees and flip the genders. Can you imagine a cheesecake mag of underage girls on sale at 7-Eleven?”
http://www.laweekly.com/arts/jonathan-brandis-how-life-after-teen-stardom-can-take-a-wrong-turn-4183323
Always wondered at the reasons Jonathan Brandis committed suicide. I don’t know his story but it’s not hard to imagine that something or someone (probably more than one someone) destroyed his soul.
there was a podcast where Larry Clark actually admitted that he only casted Bijou because the first thing she did when she auditioned was just to go directly fo him and sit on his d*ck. He also admitted that later while filming he regretted that decision because she couldn’t act and just irritated him. She’s been cast in every sh*tty thing she ever did just to play herself, she doesn’t have any acting skill.
@annaliese – um, apparently the writer of that article has never seen how young women are routinely featured in lad mags. The young mean featured in Tiger Beat got a much different treatment than the young women tongue in cheek featured in Gear/FHM/Maxim.
I believe him.
She’s always been kind of horrible so this story isn’t shocking at all.
She always struck me as a spoiled brat and a bully. Her father was the pedophile John Phillips – he of the “I sexually abused my daughter Mackenzie for years and messed with her head so she thinks it was consensual”. With tht background it’s not really surprising that she is also pretty screwed up. She gave an interview claiming she “knew” her father and her 1/2 sister were having “consensual sex” – which, of course, is impossible. So her moral compass was flawed from day one – which also explains how she ended up in a cult married to someone accused of sexual assault. Good for Daniel for speaking out. She sounds horrible.
Mackenzie’s book “High on Arrival” is insane. I feel awful for her. And now i hear that Bijou refuses to talk to Mackenzie. I’m not sure if she changed her mind about believing her? What ever the case Bijou sounds like an A-hole.
Mackenzie and Bijou have made up since Bijou almost died last year before receiving a kidney transplant. I’ve seen some photos on social media. Health problems aside, it doesn’t change the fact that she was an asshole and probably still is and is also married to one. It doesn’t surprise me, considering Bijou grew up as an entitled brat. She can treat people horribly because her privilege doesn’t allow her to deal with the consequences of her behavior.
Yes, my first thought was how she gave her sister such a terrible time when Mackensie was trying to deal with the incest she experienced from their father, who was seriously problematic in so many other ways as well. It’s a wonder Mackenzie survived it all. Bijou was in deep denial and lashed out at her. So Bijou has always been a toxic bundle of issues.
At least other people on set were doing the right thing and making it clear to her victim that it was wrong and that he didn’t deserve it and that she was the problem. That’s something that we always can do when we see someone bullied, even if we can’t deal with the bully directly or think of something appropriate to say to the bully on the spur of the moment. We can always go privately to the victim and let them know it was wrong and they were not the problem. When people are silent about the abuse they have witnessed, the victim assumes everybody thinks the abuse was ok. Just having someone tell them otherwise makes a huge difference. Children should be taught how to do this simple thing and why it’s so important. So many adults just let it pass without a word. And that really hurts the victim.
OT but… Brad Renfro… Wondering if he was abused. Such a shame.
Never cared for this woman.
oh yes, I’ve no doubt he was. The set of Apt Pupil was horrible. Google at your own discretion, what Bryan Singer put those boys through.
She sounds a lot like Kathy Griffin to me. Thinking it’s funny to taunt and tease like that. Very courageous of him to speak up.
He was. I don’t believe any young boy who spent time in Singer’s presence and ended up with drug problems escaped abuse. His death has always bothered me because he was such a promising actor in The Client. He’s around the same age as I am and I just remember thinking he seemed troubled. The set of the movie and what happened is astonishing. The fact that Singer has not been arrested and thrown in jail led me to pay attention to him and after Open Secret even more.
Then the Epstein scandal happened along with rumors and other cases, and I got my closest friend involved. We started connecting people. Part of the reason is what happened to someone we know, and the results were troubling, to put it mildly. She made a list of child actors with drug problems, mental problems, breakdowns, overdoses, suicides, left acting or whereabouts unknown. Even strange and mysterious deaths. Far too many to be a coincidence and I don’t buy it was just stress. If it was that easy for her to overlap and connect people, there has to be someone(s) with more knowledge who has done the same. There are modeling agents connected to Epstein; he is associated with 45, Prince Andrew, Clinton, and a bunch of others with money and influence. Power and a lot of money have to be involved, or this wouldn’t have lasted this long and not gone punished.
I hope someone just blows it up so all the perverts can be revealed and prosecuted. For the sake of all the kids they hurt and destroyed and ones they still can if they aren’t stopped.
Singer directed The Usual Suspects starring Kevin Spacey.
Magnolia, I agree with you. I clearly have not done the background work you and your friend have (and courageous of you to do it), and I agree there is no coincidence here.
I read that the judge, in the lawsuit against Singer and Apt Pupil was dismissed for lack of evidence. All those boys bravely told their stories, and it still wasn’t enough.
this is the friend you referred to recently, isn’t it Mag. I’m so sorry. It is incredibly hard too, when it isn’t your story and you just want to share and break the dam and let out the rot.
I can’t believe there hasn’t been a whiff about Eppstein in all of this.
He is linked with presidents, and directors, actors and everyone of note almost, as you said. What happened to people looking in to Orgy Island?
And people very commonly self medicate after abuse, especially men, as therapy holds more stigma for them. It tears me up to imagine the corey’s with Charlie, and him telling them – this is what men do. Charlie learned that from somewhere too.
I think of Lindsey and her sister, and the rumors surrounding her sister the Singer parties, and Epstein. There is more to come.
Yes, I have referred to my friend before. 🙁
As you know detritus from your experience how broken victims are and the results of this kind of abuse. It stays with them. What they have done to these boys is evil.
These guys choose sensitive victims who usually they have a pretty boyishness about them and vulnerable personalities. After they use them and twist their emotions and minds and take out their depraved fantasies on them, it stops being fun, so they need new victims. They are soul vampires.
Investigations were started in the UK and then mysteriously stopped out of the blue. Just like the Orgy Island case. Anyone who did nothing who could have is an accessory to these crimes
Probably. Coming from Larry Clark’s crop of ‘beautiful boys’, with some Bryan Singer thrown in the mix.. the way I see it, Renfro had drug problems, Nick Stahl does, and several other of those ‘beautiful boys’ from Clark’s movies, especially the more shocking ones, have struggled with severe addiction. Some have managed to build a career and get clean, some not so much.
One has to wonder why does that particular crop of (especially male) actors from the same age range, working with the same directors, has a history of addiction + rumours of being abused.
Just speculation, but there are patterns there.
Justin Pierce, who played Casper in “Kids,” killed himself in a Vegas hotel room.
YES THERE ARE! I am screaming because it is maddening and nothing is being done.
This is classic schoolyard bully behavior…seek out the weak link and exploit them to feed your own blackened soul.
Honestly, from what I’ve read about this nutcase, Daniel got off relatively easy. Nevertheless, these psychological scars never fully heal.
Yup. I knew a couple girls like her growing up. They were horrible for the sake of being horrible and woe betide whoever they decided to go after. Which of course was me. Because trying to live my life and not bother anyone was just too much, I guess. I never really figured it out, but I did start cursing them out at every opportunity and they finally left me alone.
I believe him, and I know the pain. What a waste of space garbage person.
I had a couple girls be that way toward me, too. Just horribly verbally abusive. I see them occasionally on FB now — we’re not friends but we have mutual friends — and I always think to myself, I hope you are teaching your kids to be better than you were, b&tches.
@Esmom
I am sorry someone bullied you. Even on a site called Celebitchy, you are always so lovely and polite to everyone. They have nerve, don’t they?
It is a subject I always pay attention to because I know how it feels. I was the victim of girls who were a lot worse than Bijou and in a group. They seemed to live to torment me. If you fight back, they get worse. If you say nothing, they get worse. If you tell someone, they still get worse. There is a lot of mental abuse before it becomes physical. I am convinced one of my bullies is a straight up sociopath.
When I started my career, the ringleader made snide comments. One of the reasons I was glad to leave school was to put it behind me. If someone had asked me if I wanted to clean litterboxes 8 hours a day and it meant I could escape them, I would have done that too.
So now they pretend to love me and one of the reasons I am not on FB is all these people from that time who were also complicit or suddenly don’t remember finding it funny made friend requests. If I see one of them around, I pull a full Mariah “I don’t know her.”
Oh, magnoliarose, so sorry to hear about your experience. And thank you for the kind words. My sister was bullied in a similar fashion, as were several friends of mine from college. In fact we have marveled at the fact that all of us have experienced bullying at key times in our childhood/adolescence. It sucks but I’m lucky in that I don’t think I was harmed too much by it psychologically. I was already intrinsically anxious, lol. I know what you mean about being glad to leave school. It seems like one of the benefits of not having peaked in high school is that you don’t remain stuck in that space forever, as some people I know are.
I have never liked her. I believe she refused to believe Mackenzie Phillips when she said that John Phillips raped Mackenzie. (FWIW, neither did Michelle Phillips, who I have also always disliked intensely). Chyna Phillips did, though, so she’s okay in my book.
I didn’t know that about Michelle Phillips. how ironic that she played a similar character on BH 90210…a mother who didn’t believe her husband had been raping their daughter.
Michelle Phillips isn’t Bijou’s mother and she isn’t Mackenzie’s mother–just Chyna’s mother
Takes after her good ol’dad
What a garbage person!
“Bully” is a very good movie.
I’ve never been one to associate actors with the characters they play, but I remember seeing Bijou Phillips in this movie and thinking, “She’s almost too good.” I chalked it up to her ability to look trashy, but maybe she really is that bad.
I believe HIM.
Me too. His retelling is heartbreaking.
She was best friends with Paris Hilton and is married to Danny Masterson. Nuff said.
Sounds like she and Masterson deserve each other.
I agree, Danielle. Rubbish people.
The whole time I was reading that I had Busy Phillips in my head. When I scrolled down to the pic I was like ahh well now that makes more sense. What a awful story but she’s been a known problematic person so it’s not surprising.
same, and in looking that up I just learned that Busy Philipps is NOT one of John Phillips’ kids!
She’s always had a horrible reputation as an entitled brat, so like the others, not surprised at all. Plus, doesn’t her “religion” not recognize homosexuality? I’ll bet Carnie Wilson has some harrowing tales to tell about this idiot.
She seems like a terrible bitch. Why do so many care about someone else’s sex and love life? Unless molestation or rape is suspected, it’s nobody else’s business
I’ve know friends of Bijou’s a long time and her ex boyfriend and completely believe this story. Her ex would tell people she would slap and hit him all the time. She would ridicule and make fun of people constantly. There’s a documented story from Evan Dando that she threw a brick out of his NYC apt window once, could have easily killed or really hurt someone. Recently I saw that she left a post on my friends IG when he posted a picture of his wife “Omg give her a baby already! What’s going on!!” His wife is having fertility issues. Is that really necessary to publicly post something like that? I’m happy someone is coming forward about her.
People really need to see verbal or physical abuse from a partner as a clear sign that the partner has something terribly wrong inside that they can’t fix. Normal people don’t do that. Run. You can’t fix them, they have to fix themselves and if you love them – you are not helping by pretending it’s ok.
Sounds about right. I am not surprised. Bijou’s reputation has never been good, and her brother Tamerlane was messed up with drugs. Didn’t she act crazy when she was dating Sean Lennon?
Isn’t she the one who had a kidney transplant this year?
Her behavior sounds despicable. Poor guy. At least, he gets to out the bully now, which was probably cathartic to do so.
Yes, she had a transplant this past year in Chicago. Danny and her were living there, probably to be the close to the hospital in case there were complications.
Yes, she did need a kidney transplant, and that’s crazy since Scientologists believe they have the ability to heal themselves and each other. (Scientology’s Belief in Touch Assist: The purpose of a Touch Assist is to reestablish communication with injured or ill body parts. It brings the person’s attention to the injured or affected body areas. This is done by repetitively touching the ill or injured person’s body and putting him into communication with the injury. His communication with it brings about recovery. The technique is based on the principle that the way to heal anything or remedy anything is to put somebody into communication with it. Every single physical illness stems from a failure of the being to communicate with the thing or area that is ill.) It is also said that “Clears” will not even have colds because they are so in tune with their bodies. Leah Remini covers some of this in her documentary series.
It sounds similar to how Mother Theresa was allegedly someone who thought that suffering would make a person closer to God, so she withheld pain and other medication from her patients. She would whisper to them that she wished she could be like them, to suffer and get closer to God. Many suffered and died from things that they could have been treated and cured of if they had been given appropriate care. But then she became very ill and took practically the first flight out to the U.S. to get medical treatment, which included at least antibiotics – which she wouldn’t give to her own patients. The hypocrisy is disgusting.
There’s so much detail and name dropping of corroborating witnesses that there’s no way that this isn’t true. Bijou Phillips has always come off as a nightmare. Whenever people talk about the hollywood bubble, I think of people like her and her husband. People who aren’t especially talented but who have had steady enough work to put themselves in a position to do whatever they want. They’re a member of a special branch of a cult that shows them that they don’t need to be responsible for their actions. It’s disgusting.
Oh dear I read Busy Phillips at first and was really surprised. What an awful excuse of a person this Bijou.
That would have been HEARTBREAKING.
Does anyone else remember her as Hope’s serial killer mom in Raising Hope? I Hated that character she couldn’t act for shit. Not surprised at all!
I thought the role suited her in that she had the crazy eyes down pat. LOL
The star of that show, Lucas Neff, is one of the wokest baes in Hollywood. I feel like I need to scroll his Twitter. It’s been a while.
Ouuuu I’m so happy to hear that about Jimmy 🙂
I loved that show. I hated her character – but thought she did well with the crazy.
I don’t care for her ever since she called her sister who suffered from a really messed up and incestuous relationship with their father a liar.
Was she a Scientologist back then? Because that cult is pretty homophobic. Not to mention she’s a Phillips and that family was (is?) dysfunctional as hell. Wasn’t there incest in the family? Her dad had sex (coerced? raped?) with his daughter Mackenzie Phillips, right? The Scieno cult certainly would not be helpful in terms of her healing from the craziness of her family unit. And it also isn’t surprising that she married another sexual predator.
Lord, it’s all so sick and sad yet makes perfect sense. This is a damaged woman who hasn’t gotten proper help. That said, she’s still an a-hole.
Tony Ortega’s blog about Scientology addressed Danny Masterson and BiJou Phillips not long ago. The article ended with these two sentences. “Bijou’s second film, 1999’s Black and White, was directed by James Toback. At the time, she was dating magician David Blaine.” (Both Toback and Blaine have been accused of sexual harassment.)
Bully or not I wouldn’t want anyone to be near Toback and Blaine. I am sure no one was there to protect her.
she apologized to him apparently saying those years were “a blur”. So I guess the fault is on the drugs. *eyeroll
I’m not shocked by her behavior. Didn’t her dad have an incestuous relationship with her sister? Shes also married to a rapist. And she just had a kidney transplant. Not shocked that she’s a terrible person.
I just watched Bully on Saturday. It’s one of my favorite movies. I’ve watched interviews with the actors on set and Bijou, in particular seemed completely wasted on coke during her interviews. They all seemed out of it to be honest. Brad Renfro was arrested for trying to steal a yacht while he was he was high on heroin during filming. The movie was great but the cast and probably all of production was high as a kite for the duration.
All that being said, I believe Daniel. How awful that must have been for him. I’m glad Michael and Brad stood up for him. Bijou seems like an entitled witch. Always has. Her and her disgusting husband.
Bijou Phillips who was also the “Wild” one of the Paris Hilton-Nicole Richie crew? The one who had on more than one occasion started a fight? I am shocked. Said no one. She is famously an awful, awful person. Just the worst. She and Masterson are a matched pair.
I feel so bad for Daniel. No one deserves to be treated that way and film sets, like any workplace, have safeguards (in theory). Unfortunately, in practice, studios and financiers tend to look the other way and excuse such behavior as “the creative process” or “artistic temper” when they are making money. My heart broke when he described fearing for his job because he was playing a straight guy while she’s constantly reminding the cast, crew and executives that he’s not. It is that fear, that a person may lose their job or entire career, that kept many people quiet about abusers. Hopefully studios and production companies will take a good long look at their complicity and change their procedures.
Remember the lawsuit brought against the show Friends on this very subject? It essentially gave the writers room far more leeway for “artistic freedom”. I’m kind of surprised that no one is discussing that.
I believe HIM.
YES
My heart hurts for him. Hopefully, telling this story will help him heal a bit.
Isn’t Danny the one under investigation for multiple rapes???
There was a blind item last week that Bijou is actually in love with her kidney donor/possible father of her child because some people think Danny Masterson is sterile:
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2017/11/four-for-friday-house-arrest.html
Yeah, I remember reading a story about her in which she was getting her teeth fixed while the interviewer was with her. The dental assistant was black and Bijou kept singing raps songs that had the N-word in them. She’s a disgusting human being.
Poor Daniel (“Damien!”) RIP Brand Renfro and curse the system that chewed you up and spit you out.
What a f-ing a-hole.
She released a statement basically saying her teenage years were a blur.She doesn’t remember doing this but she knows he is a honest person so it happened and she apologized to him.Apparently she called him last night and he accepted her apology.
I’ve been sober for almost ten years now but I used to run into Brad all the time when I was homeless & using, we had the same stomping grounds/dealers. anyway even in the depths of his addiction, he was kind and even protective of the other addicts out on the streets.
Heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing. Love and light.
I believe him.